Ion Fury developer Backtracks, says it will not remove gay joke because of "censorship"

After its publication, Ion Rage seemed to be a bullet-proof success. The Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior -spirited retro shooter launched earlier this month to rave reviews. Many praise his bloody, chunky mix of old and new. Soon after, players discovered homophobic content in the game, and some began to post screenshots of transphobic and sexist comments that the developers of the game had given to Discord. Last week, the developer and publisher of the game apologized and said they would remove the homophobic content from the game. This week the team of Ion Fury sings a different tune.

Ion Fury Lead Developer Richard Gobeille, who is titled "Terminx" on Steam and appears to have participated In Discord talks criticizing "SJWs," feminists and transsexuals became one through his Steam account Declaration published as "Joint Statement of Voidpoint and 3D Realms".

"We will absolutely NOT censor. Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including, but not limited to, removal of gimmicks, such as the most controversial facial cleansing of gaming

The in-game content that Voidpoint had classified as "homophobic" in a statement to Eurogamer last week, shampoo bottles with the word "OGAY" and a secret area with the word "Fagbag" next to the derogatory Discord included Comments from two Ion Fury Developers about trans people and women had inspired the studio and publisher 3D Realms to respond In the statement last week, Voidpoint had the comments and content in the game as described as "insensitive, unacceptable and counterproductive to equal opportunities" and states that it is $ 10,000 for the LGBTQ suicide non-Pr ofit project The Trevor would donate and patch the content out of the game. Publisher 3D Realms said the content was "not approved by us" and future contracts would allow the publisher to break ties with anyone who did not follow his "zero tolerance hate speech policy".

Since then Ion Fury has been tracked by negative reviews, lowering his almost unanimously positive Steam score to "mostly positive". Ratings submitted in the last 30 days are rated as "mixed" on average. Most of the recent negative reviews relate to the developers 'SJWs' and 'censorship'.

"If I could refund this game in this case." point, I would, "reads one of over 400 negative reviews released last week. "Even though it's a wonderful game and something I've been dreaming of ever since the FPS became generic Call of Duty games, I would NEVER support a company that gives way to the weeping of the oh-so-suppressed boo-hoo." Snowflakes.

Steam's new anti-review bomb system – which claims to detect when there has been an "off-topic review activity" and removes all reviews from the results for a certain period of time – I do not have this flood of negativity mind you. Some of these reviews were technically related to in-game content, although no changes have been made to the game yet. Kotaku turned to Valve for more information, but did not receive an answer.

Despite this, Voidpoint and 3D Realms seem to have heard loud and clear the outraged indignant masses. 3D Realms issued a separate statement to Kotaku expressing his support for Voidpoint's decision, his joke about how Olay, a shampoo brand that had a catchy commercial in the 1990s, gay is to defend vociferously.

Jokes at the expense of marginalized communities will no longer appear in future 3D Realms games, "said 3D Realms. "However, part of our community has made it loud and clear that the removal of" Ogay "was censorship and should be protected by freedom of expression. Voidpoint wanted to listen and we respected this decision.

3D Realms, however, noted that the word "Fagbag" was added to Ion Fury "without someone else's permission," and Voidpoint removed it a a few days ago. Indeed, the Studio has actually modified some in-game content, although 3D Realms insists that "no access is possible without hacking the game".

Despite the partial reversal of the stringent and seemingly guttural statements of the past week, 3D Realms said Voidpoint will continue to make a donation to The Trevor Project and train its employees in the age-old, business-friendly art of "sensitivity".

Regarding in-game content, 3D Realms and Voidpoint are now sincerely sorry that we regretted their previous actions.

"We do not support any censorship of creative works and regret our initial decision to change a sprite in-game rather than trust our instincts," the two companies said in the joint statement, "Richard Terminus" Gobeille. "3D Realms and Voidpoint are involved in this matter."

Ion Fury now receives negative reviews of its creator's decision to reverse the elimination of homophobia – albeit to a lesser extent than the revision bombs last week.

"After doing the right thing and apologizing and giving away money to a good charity, these idiots decide to turn their decision to old-right crybabies," it says in one. "I will not support transphobia and homophobia in any way and have applied for a refund for the game for the first time in my life."